School of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication, James Madison University, November 10-12, 2011

contact email:

gumnioec@jmu.edu

Proposal deadline: May 15, 2011

“The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter. It’s not always clear why” points out famous wandmaker Mr. Ollivander. Likewise we could say that Harry Potter chooses the scholar, and it is not always clear why.
For the first "Harry Potter Symposium for Muggle Scholars" at James Madison University we invite young and wizened scholars of all ages and from all disciplines to join us in exploring, examining, and explaining our attraction to all things HP. After all, for us muggle scholars, magic happens when we make knowledge and meaning.

Transnational Laughter: Contemporary Film and TV Comedy across National Borders

I am seeking proposals and contributions for a collection of original essays entitled Transnational Laughter: Contemporary Film and TV Comedy across National Borders. As the first edited volume of its kind, Transnational Laughter seeks to expand the field of media studies and shed light on overlooked areas of academic interest, taking comedy and its various subgenres (including black comedy, improv, modern slapstick, the romcom, satire, scatological humor, sketch comedy, spoofs, stand-up, and so forth) as vehicles through which to assess the international transit of these specific cultural forms over the past 25-30 years.